Gotham by Gaslight
In Elseworlds, DC Comics characters are taken out of their usual settings and put in alternate worlds or realities. All the stories that take place in Elseworlds do not affect the present DC continuation or the regular characters. Gotham by Gaslight is the second rated Elseworlds story, after Batman & Dracula: Red Rain.
The volume that I have is the one-shot 52 pages graphic novel. I also have Batman: Master of the Future, which ill write about next month. There is another edition called Batman by Gaslight, which contains the whole two Victorian adventures of Batman (Gotham by Gaslight + Master of the Future) on 112 pages. You can find that edition at dccomics.com.
“What would the Gotham City of 100 years ago have been like?”
Mike Mignola is an excellent artist, and in this GN we can see his art way before he created Hellboy. I think it is the type of art that fits this type of story. Classical settings, not so dynamic, with a strong taste of noir and detective work involved. The script of Brian Augustyn resembles a lot an Agatha Christie or a Sherlock Holmes story. Moody, dark, deprived by bright colors, full of steamy murky streets, with women for consumption and dim gas lights at each corner, Gotham by Gaslight manages to emanate a true Gothic atmosphere perfect for the Batman.
My name is Ripper. Jack the Ripper. The story appears to be focused on Jack the Ripper, but is and is not in the same time. Hard to explain, but the Ripper is used only to make an introduction of this Batman of the Victorian Age. It is more about the road that Bruce Wayne had to take to become Batman, the greatest detective in the World. His methods of investigation, his struggles, his inquisitive and fast mind.
Set in the year 1889, the graphic novel shows us a Gotham of the Victorian Age, shocked by a series of murders that point the a nocturnal creature known as the Bat-Man. Bat-man described by witnesses, Bizarre Night Creature, Strange Creature Sighted…all these titles taken from The Gotham Guardian describe the paranoia and the mystifying stories that spread across the city, distorting and feeding the growing fears of the population. Later is proven that the killer from London, Jack the Ripper, is the one behind the murders.
One citizen of the city that doesn’t have any alibi for the time of the murders is yours truly Bruce Wayne. Thrown in prison, from now on Bruce Wayne puts his mind and athletic qualities at stake to solve the murders that is about to be convicted for. He is the city’s only chance (and his only chance not to be hanged), as the Gotham police is totally surpassed by the events. This Batman is a plane simple one, no gadgets can help him, no tricky gas can make him escape his adversaries. Courage, brilliant mind and a cloth costume is all that he has. Cloth may be, but the suit has the same devastating scary and intimidating effect that we know from the regular Batman comics.
I will let you to discover the whole story that’s hidden between the covers of Gotham by Gaslight, one that does not deserve a rude spoiler. It is a gem, this graphic novel. A truly great batman story by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola.
Buy Batman: Gotham By Gaslight
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